With the wide-spread increase in usage and demand for nanoparticles today, effective methods for manufacturing them has become a crucial need of the hour. The increase in demand are spread across an exhaustive list of application in various industries, the industries including but not limited to the pharmaceutical industry (drug delivery), electronics, food industry, production of fuel cells, water and environment treatment.
The existing physical and chemical manufacturing methods of nanomaterials include but are not limited to thermolysis extractions, hydrothermal process, sol-gel and reduction-based liquid phase deposition. Thermolysis extraction for instance typically further employs numerous mechanical methods including but not limited to ball milling, laser, plasma and flame spread, requiring significant infrastructure, capital for equipment and safety preventative measures.
Among the existing methods, chemical manufacturing methods of reduction-based liquid phase are by and large the safest, least expensive and easily adaptable in any equipped chemical lab. However, certain parameters including size, shape, accumulation behaviors, core-shell ratio, oxidation states and magnetization among others are detrimental in the product making and variations in these parameters may be experienced during large scale production via reduction-based methods.
Furthermore, yet another traditional method like magnetic-electric stirrer used in the production of nanoparticles leads to loss in product quantity due to nanoparticles sticking to the stirrer, movement/vibrations affecting the magnetic system and reduction in efficiency of blending and mixing due to the speed of the magnetic stirrer, thereby making it an inefficient method.
Therefore, in light of the above, there is a need for a system enabling the production of homogeneous nanoparticles at an industrial scale level by overcoming the deficiencies associated with the traditional methods of preparation and fulfilling the extensive need of the industries.